ceci n’est pas un blog

My love uses his Photoshop skills to be exceedingly clever: http://flickr.com/photos/81265440@N00/2551456235/

With the weekend coming, our office is obviously feeling light and fun, as shown by this inter-office email exchange (which was sparked by the news of the hop shortage).

Thanks to shooshee for posting it for posterity’s sake.

I just heard that KUT is going to have Radiolab on at 3pm every day this week to see what response to it is like in Austin. I am fanatically obsessed with this show. It’s insightful, intelligent and funny, and I’ve learned a lot from it: everything from how rats to laugh to how problematic theories on the center of universe can be.

Since we don’t get it on the radio here, I listen to the podcast on iTunes, but I’m really hoping that they’ll get enough positive response to make it a regular show. If you want to call in to let KUT know that you like it (since they’re gaging response by calls), their number is 512-471-2345.

As a creatively-thrown-together Santa. (Note the bib beard and stocking hat.) I guess even then I liked to throw together costumes from random items around the house.

This is half of my submission to ze frank’s Color Wars.

I’ve been a fan of Han Hoogerbrugge’s art and animations for a few years. I’m ecstatic that he has put up his whimsical and dark and hilarious short snippet animations on his site. You have to hover on them or click them to make them work. Oh, the hours of joy one can find on the nets.

Last night, we met up with some friends for farewell cocktails and dinner. When we learned that the two restaurants that we wanted to go to had a wait of more than an hour, we decided to walk to a different area, about 15-20 blocks away.

Just as we started to head in that direction, a limo with its front windows down turned into the crosswalk in front of us. I half-jokingly asked the guys in the front, “Are you guys for hire?” assuming they’d just laugh. Instead their response was, “Sure, where are you going?” and so I asked how much it would cost to go to lower Haight. They told us we could pay whatever we wanted since they were just killing time, waiting to pick up someone who wasn’t ready yet.

So the four of us hopped in the back and we ended up going down to the Indian restaurant in style! All of this reminded me yet again that it never hurts to ask and that life will only give you the answers/adventures to the questions you ask of it.

Once I realized that “laughter’s the best medicine” wasn’t just a weak aphorism, and that laughter does have many health benefits, I made it a goal this year to laugh more. But I didn’t get serious about doing so until I read about how various studies have shown that even fake laughter has the same positive health effects on the body as genuine laughter, and something called Laughter Yoga takes advantage of this.

So I did some research to figure out how I could do laughter yoga, and I was amazed to discover that there are laughter clubs all over the world. Besides being a zany and fun sounding thing to do, the physical benefits alone made me want to try one.

Of the three laughter groups in San Francisco, I just picked the closest, which was at the YMCA’s senior annex. After I walked in, I was surprised to find that the group consisted of five people who probably had an average age of 75.

At first I was a bit tense and self-conscious, but after I got into it, I found it easy to laugh great, satisfying belly laughs, even with the absence of anything funny. I loved it! We did all kinds of stretches that all involved laughing, imitated sprinklers, blew bubbles while listening to the song “Tiny Bubbles,” played with Tickle Me Elmo, did Rodney Dangerfield impersonations, and laughed and laughed.

And as I made my way home, I found many things more humorous. I felt light, stress-free and clear-headed. It made me wish that watching comedies and doing laughter yoga would be prescribed more often than anti-depressants. Ho ho, ha ha!

Since we didn’t get to see the Democratic debate in Austin, J and I decided to experience it a different way: through reading the last part of it aloud.

I humbly offered to play Clinton and he played Obama. And to make it more fun, we read it in all sorts of different tone of voices. So there was Clinton the sexy seductress, read with a sultry, heavy breathing tone. There was Clinton the high-pitched bimbette, Clinton the eight-year-old girl, Clinton with a French accent, Obama the country bumpkin with a southern accent, Obama as a lively Elvis, Obama as Donald Duck, etc.

I love how many creative ways we can find to entertain ourselves!

We spent the weekend in Monterey. Although everyone talks about the aquarium there, they should also rave equally about the patriotic deep-fried artichokes. Not that I have anything against the French, but I actually wish that these, combined with ranch dressing, would more often replace fries. How often do you see French fries served with a little flag?
——–
additional note: Ok, so I found one example. But those are obviously freedom fries, so they don’t count.

J and I had a lovely v-day. He took me to dinner the week before so that we wouldn’t have to have the pressure or stress of doing something on the actual day, so I wasn’t really expecting much.

We started off by going to the massive San Francisco pillow fight. There’s a great collection of pics of the fight and its aftermath. It was great fun to run into a huge throng of wildly swinging pillows while insanely laughing and getting covered with the pouring snowy feathers. What a fab idea for a typically lovey dovey day!

Then, we ventured off to grab a casual bite to eat, assuming we wouldn’t find anything nice, and hoping we wouldn’t end up eating at Subway. We had to try to dust off most of our feathers while taking the trolley across town to Russian Hill. We found a seafood place, and although it was very busy and “it’s impossible without a reservation on Valentine’s day,” we tried our chances. Out of sheer luck, a couple had canceled and had thusly bequeathed us a little nook looking out onto the street at the front window. We had a fabulous five course meal, complete with kir royals, oysters, lobster tails, filet mignon and creme brulée, o my! So I got incredibly spoiled having two wonderful dinners in one week.

Then, to top it all off, my love surprised me with a gift that I couldn’t have dreamnt he would do for me. Back at our apartment, he sat me down on the couch, and brought out a pretty bag full of little bottles and tools. Then…get this ladies and gentlemen…he proceeded to give me a wonderful manicure! He buffed my nails, filed them, used cuticle cream, sloughed off the dead skin with scented sea salts, and moisturized them. I was overwhelmed with joy to be so pampered and loved by such a thoughtful and sweet gift.

It’s wonderful to look down at my hands and be reminded of how much he loves me. Happy happy!

It was a gorgeous, clear day in SF today, and so I worked with the door to our tiny studio open to enjoy the fresh breezes. Then, all of a sudden, I saw a flash and noticed that a little hummingbird had come in and was darting around inside. She went over to the silk orchids and hovered around them for a bit, trying to figure out how to get nectar from their plastic stamen.

When I saw her at first, I had a moment of dread since the last time a pigeon found its way inside through the chimney where I was living in Paris, it repeatedly flew against the windows until there were bloody stains all over the walls. But happily, this little one was much smarter, and just darted back and forth across the room and near the windows. After watching her for a while, mesmerized, I finally went over and gently directed her to the door so that I could herd her outside to freedom. It was magical!

I posted some pictures of my trip to Yelapa on flickr. What a paradise of tropical jungle and beaches! Accessible only by boat, this town is 15 miles down the coast from Puerto Vallarta. I can’t wait for the next time I can go back.

Last year, I wrote about the Mayfly project and summarizing the year in 24 words. And so here’s this year’s recap:

San Francisco for six months, eating and living decadently. Traveling to Paris for work. Creating shenanigans and digital Illustrations. Conflict and growth in change.

Short and sweet.

I’m so happy to live in a place where the Santas know how to rampage in style. Pics to prove it.

While home for Thanksgiving, I went through a few boxes of stuff from my childhood. One of the best finds was a diary I wrote in when I was 11 years old. Every page dutifully started out with the words “Dear Diary,” and most of it consisted of me rambling on about boys, whether one liked me, how cute one was, how one talked to me after lunch, how I wished another would ask me to “go with him,” etc.

The best non-boy related part was the list I’d made of things I wanted to be when I grew up:

1) An interior designer
2) A fashion designer
3) An artist
4) A photographist
5) An animal trainer

Since my profession is UI Design and I enjoy creating art and taking pictures, I haven’t been too off-base from my childhood goals. Now if only I can find out how to figure in the animal training, I’ll be set!